Sustainable Community Development (2010)

Submitted by Ezra Glenn on Fri, 11/30/2012 - 2:01pm

Sustainable Residential Development in ShantouThis report contains the work of the Spring 2010 Planning Studio, in Shantou, Guangdong, China. The 2010 Studio is the latest in the series of studios and research seminars on sustainable residential development in China conducted by MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning since 2005. The studios’ goal has been to plan and design sustainable neighborhoods in the context of the environmental, social, and economic issues expected to emerge over the next twenty years. The earlier studios (sponsored by Esquel and Vanke China) have served as valuable resources for this year’s work.Sustainability is defined by a balance of the “three E’s”: environment, economy, and equity. Sustainable residential development goes beyond environmental considerations and must be economical and provide access to public goods such as housing, transportation and public services. Our goals in planning are resource efficiency, demographic inclusiveness, accessible community facilities, and mobility.

This year, our sponsor is the Cheung Kong Design Research Centre with the cooperation of Shantou University. The City government of Shantou provided invaluable material on every aspect of the city’s development and planning. The City organized a session with all relevant agencies to brief the class and to answer our questions.